Contest Entries - Perfection - a reflection

Contest - Perfection

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My reflection grins up at me.

We are alike, yet she is distorted by the water's surface;

Her face ripples in and out of view.

When I force a smile, hers becomes real.

When I succumb to inner sadness

She seems to find the light in life, and hide it from me,

Beneath the river's surface.

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She is perfection.

Perhaps I am the reflection

Of her, a monster in her skin,

Who knows no affection.

Where her family stands beside her, I am alone.

Where she succeeds, I fail, and she always does succeed.

I pretend to be her, sometimes, pretend that I am perfect, like her.

I wear her smile like a mask, as if it's protection

from the infection that is destroying me from the inside out -

The quiet knowledge that I will never achieve perfection,

That I will never be her.

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When I was young, I imagined us alike,

The same, even.

When I was young, I didn't know how different

Me and my reflection would become.

She is what others see; carefully curated perfect perfection.

I am not her.

She is not me.

I stare into the river,

Notice how very deep it is, just how far down it goes.

She glares up at me, insistent that she gets her way.

What have I to lose anymore? When I've already lost my world?

She stares up at me, and her smile has fallen.

I fall too.

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Perfection is a funny thing, really.

Is perfection a simple reflection, like I had come to believe?

Is being 'perfect' really worth it?

Is it worth years spent underwater, searching blindly for it?

I reflect.

Maybe she and I were not so different

After all.

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